Management Consulting Group to sell Kurt Salmon

Management Consulting Group announced on Thursday that it has entered into an agreement with Accenture for the sale of Kurt Salmon, comprising the Kurt Salmon retail and consumer goods consulting businesses in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Hong Kong and Japan, for a total gross cash consideration of $165m payable on completion.

The AIM-traded firm said the disposal is expected to realise gross cash proceeds of £127m, allowing MCG to seek to use part of the net proceeds to fund a proposed payment of capital to shareholders.

It said the disposal represents an attractive value for shareholders, with the proposed gross consideration representing approximately 148% of the MCG Group's current market capitalisation.

The net proceeds of the disposal will also strengthen the financial position of the group, the board claimed, by increasing the level of cash resources available to the remaining business and eliminating the requirement for the existing working capital facility.

“The proposed disposal of the Kurt Salmon retail and consumer goods consulting business follows the recent disposals of the healthcare and French and related operations of Kurt Salmon,” said Management Consulting Group chairman Alan Barber.

“We believe the business will be in excellent hands as part of Accenture.

“We expect to return part of the proceeds from the disposal to shareholders in due course and are highly focused on driving a recovery to profitable growth in the Alexander Proudfoot business,” Barber explained.